Thursday, January 17, 2013

Holocaust-denying bishop fined

A German court has fined a renegade British bishop €1,800 (£1,500)
for denying the Holocaust - Holocaust-denial is a crime in Germany - in a
television interview.

An administrative court in Regensburg convicted Richard Williamson of
incitement and levied the fine on Wednesday, the German news agency dpa
reported.

He was not present at Wednesday's court proceedings.

The case
was retried after an earlier conviction of Williamson was overturned on
procedural grounds.Williamson, 72, told a Swedish TV station in 2008, during an
interview conducted near Regensburg, that he believed 200,000 to 300,000
Jews died in Nazi concentration camps, but none of them in gas
chambers, during the Second World War.Williamson, 72, was one of four bishops illicitly ordained by
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre into the Society of St Pius X (SSPX), which
rejects the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Pope Benedict XVI
lifted the excommunications of the four in 2009, the day the interview
was broadcast.